Humanist Union Government Departments
__TOC__ Department of the State The Department of the State is an amorphous, sprawling, ill-defined department, the legacy of the touch-and-go days of the CCP and early Humanist Union. A variety of civilian offices fall under the authority of the Department of State, including the Office of Agriculture, Office of Industry, Office of Manufacturing, Office of Labor Relations, and the Office of Psionics. The Department of State's primary role is in organizing, monitoring, and coordinating the various civilian institutions that allow the Humanist Union to run from day to day. While ultimately subordinate to the Federal Legislature and the Coordinator, the Director of the Department of the State is easily one of the most powerful individuals in the Humanist Union at any given time, and is considered by many to be the informal "second-in-command" of the goverment; indeed, in the event of an emergency death at the top level of government, the department's head temporarily becomes the Coordinator until confirmed by the Federal Legislature or replaced with another permanent candidate. Office of Psionics Falling under the authority of the Department of the State, the Office of Psionics is tasked with discovering, rounding up, educating, and training citizens of the Union that demonstrate ESP. Founded by the current state department director William Bryce, the Office of Psionics regularly administers tests for latent ESP abilities throughout the Union's mandatory primary education system. Those who demonstrate ability are removed from the mainstream and placed in specialized, high-quality institutions to continue or complete their formal education alongside various new materials. While this is technically voluntary, few parents hold their children back; the higher standard of education and guarantee of a prestigious federal job are enough for most parents, and government pressure and penalties usually convince the rest. Inductees into the Office of Psionics' schools are heavily indoctrinated in new humanist political theory and trained across a broad spectrum of ESP fields, with a focus on empathy, telepathy, and precognition. Graduates from this system are deployed throughout a variety of government posts, serving in the Department of Internal Intelligence, Department of External Intelligence, as well as in the Department of Justice and Rehabilitation. Even those who aren't inducted into federal training programs are carefully monitored by the government and offered education personally when their parents need no longer be consulted (at age 16). The Office of Psionics is under close observation by the Department of Internal Intelligence's Office of Political Infidelity. Department of War The Department of War has overall authority over the military of the Humanist Union, and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the army and navy. Traditionally, the head of the Department of War is a military officer, though the Director's job is largely organizational and financial. Next to the Department of the State, the Department of War is the most powerful and influential branch of the executive government; indeed, it falls behind its civilian equivalent only because its Director is not directly in-line for ascension to the position of Coordinator in the event of a sudden death, abdication, or assassination. Nonetheless, the Department of War is incredibly influential in federal politics, a product of the Humanist Union's birth being closely tied to the military and military figures. In times of war, civil defense forces fall under the command of Federal Army and Navy officers where present. The Federal Civil Protection Service - that is, the federal police - are also subordinated to the military in times of war or martial law. Office of the Army The Office of the Army is in charge of all terrestrial forces in the military. This is not limited to the traditional "army" divisions of artillery, infantry, and armor, but also to terrestrial air forces and and even wet navies, where present. Arguably inferior in the chain of command to the Federal Navy, all ranks in the Federal Army are considered inferior to their Federal Naval equivalent save the rank of Marshal (on-par with Fleet Admiral). This is largely a product of the critical nature of naval superiority in modern military affairs, but less-charitable souls have been known to blame a naval bias in the Union's upper echelon, who are indeed largely ex-navy. Headed by the Marshal of the Federal Army (more frequently called Marshal), a largely administrative role. The Federal Army sources many operatives to the Union's intelligence departments. Office of the Navy Easily the most prestigious division of the Humanist Union's expansive military, the Federal Navy has produced some of the most skilled leaders and politicians that the Union has to offer, including the Coordinator himself. The Federal Navy is somewhat more competitive than the Federal Army, owing to its critical role in national security. Naval officers always have seniority to their Federal Army equivalent, save at the rank of Fleet Admiral (on-par with that of Marshal). The Federal Navy is headed by the Fleet Admiral of the Federal Navy, or the Fleet Admiral, a role that is largely concerned with organization and coordination, not combat. Many Federal Navy veterans go on to serve or even lead the Federal Legislature, a testament to the political might and clout of the Office of the Navy. Department of External Intelligence When the old Republican intelligence apparatus was destroyed in the years of purges that followed the Progressive victory, the CCP and Humanist Union both recognized the need for experts in foreign intelligence, lest the fledgling revolutionary state be caught unawares and destroyed before it had time to stabilize. While external and internal intelligence departments were combined during the early years of the CCP, Coordinator Stein divided the two into seperate branches for the sake of clarity, specialization, and power control after achieving dominance over the developing state. The Department of External Intelligence is the lesser of the two sibling departments; the Humanist Union's isolationist nature has led to relatively few foreign interactions and produced only modest need for spies abroad. The DEI continues to grow in importance and capability, however, especially in these more open days; it is closely associated with the Diplomatic Corps (though they fall nominally under the Department of the State), and was involved in the development of the Lightbringer-class scout corvette. The DEI is set only to grow in size and practical experience. Office for Special Missions The obtusely-named Office for Special Missions is both a new and an old part of the Department of External Intelligence. New, in that it was only formally founded in 3390, old, in that its missions have been engaged in by the state since it had external assets it could reliably deploy. The Office for Special Missions concerns itself with monitoring, training, supplying, and fromenting socialist and new humanist revolutions abroad. Officially, the OSM does not exist. In practice, the OSM is regularly involved in revolutions abroad, often cut off from any state support whatsoever for extended periods of time. In some way the DEI's answer to the DII's Office of State Security, the Office for Special Missions is ruthless and often behaves in a dubiously moral manner. Like the OSS, it frequently sources agents from the Federal Army, though Special Operations troopers are used considerably less liberally. The OSM is not always actively engaged in encouraging violent revolt: in some states, it merely aids in developing and steering leftist movements to be powerful and friendly to the Humanist Union. Department of Internal Intelligence The widely-feared but little-understood Department of Internal Intelligence (DII) is the larger of the Humanist Union's two intelligence departments, a tremendously influential institution with fingers on literally every world in the Humanist Union. The Union's DII can trace its roots back to the first days after the revolution, where internal espionage became a necessity in stabilizing the new state and removing undesirable elements before they had time to do damage. The DII was intimately involved in the purge era, itself undergoing a purge and subsequent ideological shift when the Humanist Union moved away from a stance of emergency authoritarianism to a mode of operation more-closely tied to the rule of law. Still, the DII has a sinister reputation as being willing to bend the rules for the good of the state, and its director is considered to be the Coordinator's "invisible hand" by some. Office of Political Infidelity Formed after the attempt on Coordinator Stein's life, the Office of Political Infidelity has always existed in some nebulous form or another within the Progressive revolutionaries' intelligence arm. Formal establishment under the Department of Internal Intelligence gave the office more clear objectives and powers. The Office is made up agents assigned to investigate the political leanings of authority figures, rooting out radicals, conservatives, and would-be coup leaders. Though the Office enjoyed significant power in its early days and made a grim name for itself, the modern Office engages in no noticable political terror and concerns itself with loyalty to the state, not political orthodoxy. Undercover officers can often be found in the departments of potentially-questionable individuals as well as in the military, where they're usually referred to as AFPs - "another fucking political." The syndicalist high commander of the army, Marshal Adam DuBois, supposedly coined this term to refer to new subordinates assigned to his office during the chaotic early days of the CCP and later the Humanist Union. Coordinator Stein, the Director of Internal Intelligence, and the Federal Legislature all technically have authority over the Office, though in practice only the former two exert authority. Office of State Security Originally a part of the Office of Political Infidelity, the OSS was seperated to reduce that powerful agency's clout by executive order of the Coordinator himself. Properly understood, the Office of State Security is a secret police force. While the OPI concerns itself with the loyalty of key figures such as politicians, manufacuring administrators, and senior military officers, the OSS monitors the populace at large in an attempt to discover and neutralize spies, terrorists, and violent political radicals. The OSS is responsibile for many of the more legally and ethically dubious actions of the Department of Internal Intelligence today. The OSS often works in close cooperation with the Federal Civil Protection Service and the Federal Army's Special Operations division, though troops seconded to the OSS are not privy to its goals. The Coordinator, Director of Internal Intelligence, and Federal Legislature all have authority over the OSS, though practically speaking only the former two exert real authority. Department of Civil Defense The Humanist Union's mismatched myriad of planetary defense forces fall under the ultimate authority of the Department of Civil Defense. Each planet in each sector is expected to provide for its own defense forces, a professional but tertiary military called on in times of unrest or war. Unsurprisingly, each planet's civil defense force varies by the culture and industrial wealth of its host world, but they all share some things in common. All are headed by a Director of Civil Defense, with a Director of the Civil Army and Director of the Civil Navy underneath. All have a federally-appointed Lieutenant Director of Civil Defense who carefully watches for signs of insurrection or ideological sickness. All planetary defense services answer nominally to the central Department of Civil Defense office, though in practice this office exists mostly for the purposes of organization, coordination, and effective communication, not federal-level command. In times of war, the Civil Defense Force is subordinated to the Federal Military. Department of Justice and Rehabilitation The Department of Justice and Rehabilitation, or DJR, is the federal-level authority in law within the Humanist Union, responsible for the Federal Court, criminal law, and the penal system. The Federal Civil Protection Service (not to be confused with the Department of Civil Defense, a military institution), acts in the role of policing and is subordinate to the DJR. While the Humanist Union largely allows member-worlds to make their own laws and create their own courts, they are subordinate to the federal system and must be organized around a similar or identical structure. The FCPS service is quite large, with presences on all Union worlds. They tend to hold more sway on inhospitable colony worlds, which rarely have extensive local police forces. Originally focused on containment and punishment, the DJR underwent a radical shift in focus in the fairly recent past to a rehabilitation and reintegration model. Humanist justice is focused around returning criminals to society as safe, productive individuals. The death penalty is illegal in all save a few emergency circumstances, most of them military. Instead, the Union's ultimate sentence - for the unfixable or for certain unfortunate political enemies - is "enhanced resocialization." The exact process that this term entails is not entirely clear, but its results are readily apparent. The resocialized have vague recollection of their pre-criminal days at best, and are docile, unusually calm, and strongly obedient. Those who are products of enhanced resocialization are usually assigned to menial labor jobs in the outside world. Modern Humanist justice language, owing to its rehabilitative focus, is couched in pseudo-medical terms. Category:Humanist Union